Thursday, October 22, 2009

Pinnacles National Monument

Today we went with Julie and Bob in their truck and drove south on highway 25 to visit the Pinnacles National Monument which is just a few miles from the San Benito TT park where we are now staying. It was an easy drive on a bright sunny day.

Dennis, Bob and Julie went for a hike up to a scenic overlook. Due to the problems with her ankle Barbara was not able to go for the hike. But she sat on a park bench and enjoyed the scenery including watching the woodpeckers in the area. The hike was billed as easy to moderate and was a moderate uphill climb of about an hour. We started hiking at about 2 o'clock which was the heat of the day which made it a bit more tiring that it would have been with more sensible planning.The woodpeckers love the dead trees

We were able to view the rock formations for which the park is named from a variety of perspectives. There were also interesting views of the canyons and the varied vegetation. We saw the largest pine cones that we have ever seen.

On the way home a flock of wild turkeys just had to cross the road, too bad we didnt get to do any roadkill, might have been tasty.